To hear the news media tell it, Israel’s Knesset has approved extreme right-wing legislation that will steal Palestinian land by legalizing illegal outposts and thereby demolish the last hopes … more

Though this week’s parsha begins with a story of Yisro, its chronological relationship with the rest of the Exodus narrative is debated by the commentaries. If we ignore this story for a … more

The penultimate pasuk of our parasha, Yitro, focuses on the law of constructing an altar made of stone: “And when you make for Me an altar of stones, you shall not build them of hewn stones, … more

There is a story told by Rav Ephraim Oshry, one of the last rabbis of the Kovno Ghetto, in his monumental work of Holocaust responsum, Mima’amakim. When the Nazis arrived in the small … more

If anyone can be said to have discovered the formula for a world without evil, that accolade belongs to the great medieval Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides. "For through cognition … more

The base themes of the holiday of Purim are survival and the smile. Irony in my opinion is a smile with a clear understanding of the inner meaning of the biblical text, in this case that of the Book … more

This might not be such a bad time for photographers. For years, old pros — meaning experienced and skilled professional photographers, as well as myself — have been complaining that … more

To hear the news media tell it, Israel’s Knesset has approved extreme right-wing legislation that will steal Palestinian land by legalizing illegal outposts and thereby demolish the last hopes … more

To say the implementation of President Donald Trump’s travel ban was clumsy would be an understatement. To say, however, that the principles involved were totally without constitutional … more

There are all kinds of sayings reminding us that if we fail to learn from the tragedies of the past, we are doomed to relive them in the future. We appear to have failed to heed that … more